Modern vehicles (e.g., airplanes, boats, trains, cars, trucks, etc.) can include a vehicle event recorder in order to better understand the timeline of an anomalous event (e.g., an accident). A vehicle event recorder typically includes a set of sensors, e.g., video recorders, audio recorders, accelerometers, gyroscopes, vehicle state sensors, GPS (global positioning system), etc., that report data, which is used to determine the occurrence of an anomalous event. If an anomalous event is detected, then sensor data related to the event is recorded and transmitted to a vehicle data server for later review. In some embodiments, the vehicle data server determines that sensor data should be recorded by the vehicle event recorder and transmitted for review even though an anomalous event has not been detected by the event recorder.